Terry Grandchester
wasn’t the kind of person to just stand around daydreaming. But that morning he
was surprised to catch himself doing just that: smoking a cigarette in frond of
the big window of his bedroom, instead of the trees of the park across he was
looking at the ocean; the street lights transformed to towering palm trees, the
annoying morning city noise faded into the tranquil sounds of calm sea-water
washing out on a golden beach… the menacing looking dark grey New York sky
changed to a brilliant, endless blue all of a sudden, a golden sun right in the
middle of it… and the frantic screeching of birds trying to find cover from the
imminent storm turned into the happy chirping of seagulls chasing each other low
over the water…

The whole scene was incredibly relaxing and Terry
allowed himself to mentally ‘stay’ there a while longer… even though he knew he
would physically be there in only two days time, he couldn’t wait! He was due to
board a ship destined for the Caribbean island of Barbados later that afternoon
and his anticipation of the trip had kept him awake the past few nights. He
could not remember when was the last time he felt excited to the point of
daydreaming about going anywhere.

Terry had been offered the leading
part in a movie that was to be filmed in the island over a period of six weeks.
Even though he preferred working on the stage rather than the movies, and he had
turned some serious film offers down in recent months, he had agreed to do this
one unequivocal, knowing very well it would bring him neither success nor money:
it was the idea of spending six weeks away from everything and everyone in New
York that was more enticing than the job itself. Such was his need to be away
for a while that he had added two weeks of vacation prior to the six weeks of
filming and now he couldn’t wait to spend two months living on the beach with a
cocktail at hand!

A sudden knock at his door crashed him back into the
reality of his dreary bedroom. Damn… he was not there yet! Irked, for he knew
who it was and he had no desire to see them, he blew the smoke and stamped the
cigarette out just as his door opened and Susanna Marlowe entered his room… as
usual without waiting for his invitation. She looked too sour to be really upset
and if her lower lip wasn’t protruding so much, he might have actually believed
she was genuinely pouting.

“Would you like me to help you pack, Terry?”
she asked looking overly sad.

Terry bit the inside of his lower lip to
stop himself from laughing. Susanna was always relying to her maid to pack her
bag if she had to stay to the hospital overnight; she wouldn’t know where to
start if she had to pack cotton balls in a matchbox, let alone pack his
suitcases for a two month trip.

“I’m almost done”, he said casually. He
had left the packing for the last morning before his trip so that he can keep
himself occupied. He was now half way done with the second suitcase which lay
open on his bed. She started approaching him slowly her eyes tearing up with
every step. Terry knew where this was going, so he instantly busied himself with
opening the closet, drawers and cupboards on the pretence of checking whether he
had forgotten anything he might needed.

“Why can’t I come with you?” she
asked sadly for… well, Terry didn’t know; he had lost count of how many times
she had asked the same question the past week.

“You want me to tell you
again?” he asked sarcastically. “The 2579 times we’ve been through this already
wasn’t enough for you?”

“But I want to come with you…” she
pleaded again sitting on his bed next to the suitcase.

“But I don’t
want you to come with me!” he thought and considered it a great success that
he had actually managed to stop short of shouting it at her face. “And I want a
lot of things I can’t have, Susanna, you’ll live…” he said coldly.

“I’m going to the Caribbean for
two months in September… would you come with me…?”

She was sitting across
a table from him, holding his hand and looking lovingly at him with those huge
green eyes of hers…

“I would go anywhere with you…” she said then burst
into laughter…

The image flashed through
Terry’s head so suddenly he momentarily staggered backwards. Frowning, he shook
his head to clear it wondering where it had come from. He knew he had “asked
her” to go with him many times in his mind in the past few weeks, but this
image was so clear as if it has actually happened. Slightly shaken he
nevertheless shrugged it off as wishful thinking on his part and he turned his
attention back to Susanna who thankfully had not noticed anything.

“It’s
a shame this trip came up in such a short notice” she was saying in her high
pitched voice which lately was getting on his last nerve. “If we had had more
time to organize it, we could have made some arrangements so I could come too.
Just imagine… it would be like we were on our honeymoon…” she ended with a
faraway look on her face.

Terry didn’t trust himself to answer this. For
one, he didn’t want her to know he had actually arranged that trip three whole
months earlier – plenty of time to make arrangements for her to join him had he
wanted her with him. For another, she didn’t know about the two weeks vacation
he had added that were meant to be his ‘away from her’ time; and for a third,
the image she had just invoked in his mind – so unlike the one he had had a
moment earlier – was threatening to make him physically sick. To distract
himself he opened a drawer with greater than needed force, checked its contents
decided he didn’t need anything from it and banged it shut again.

She
continued sitting there looking unhappy, watching his every move. The constant
scrutiny was getting to him.

“Susanna, don’t you have anything better to
do than just sit there watching me? I am only packing a suitcase, for God’s
sake!” he said annoyed. “Stupid question”, he thought as soon as he
uttered it. She had absolutely nothing else to do, let alone something
better.

“But I want to come with you…” she repeated still
pleading her case. “I am sure we can still make arrangements to…”

“For
the thousandth time, Susanna, I will be busy with work; I won’t have time to
look after you. And what are you going to do while I’m working?” Terry tried to
make it sound as if her wellbeing was what prevented him taking her with him.

“Well, perhaps Mama could come with us too to keep me company…”

“Perhaps you and your damn Mama can go and I can stay here, in that
case!” he thought bitterly. The reference to Mrs. Marlowe was enough to make
his blood crawl and to speed up his packing. She had been visiting relatives in
her hometown in Ohio for the past two weeks but she was due back later that
evening to be with Susanna in his absence and Terry was anxious to get out of
the house before her return. “I cannot afford 8 weeks in the island for all
three of us” he said coldly taking a bunch of ties off the rack of his closet
and throwing them unceremoniously in the suitcase.

“But, Mama can
sup…”

“NO!” he said categorically, finally raising his voice. “You
are not coming, end of story, do not ask again!”

“You don’t want to take
me with you”, she said then hid her face in her hands and burst into tears.

“You guessed that damn right”, he thought opening the drawer of
his bedside table. It was the wrong one. He felt the familiar pinch in his heart
seeing the place where his harmonica should be, empty. He had lost it weeks
earlier, he didn’t even remember where or how, and he had yet to get over it. He
slammed the drawer shut and turned to look at her – she was still bleating
behind her hands. Terry had seen that happening way too many times to be
moved.

“But, I am going to… miss you so much Terry… I am missing you
already…”

“It will seem like
forever to me… I love you so much…” she stood up and approached him slowly.
Terry knew what was coming and it amused him to see that she would still try it
on even after he had blown her off time and again. He rested his hands on his
hips and waited. As he had expected, she let her crutches fall on the floor when
she reached him then she wrapped her arms around his waist looking at him
seductively. She raised herself on her toe and pecked him on the cheek,
straggling against his rigid posture. His unresponsiveness however had never
deterred her; she tried to kiss him on the lips, but that’s where he drew the
line.

“I need to finish packing” he said reaching for her hands at his
back to free himself.

“You have enough time to finish packing, won’t you
spend some time with me?” she asked in a low voice with a smile that betrayed
her intentions.

“I don’t think so…” he said succeeding to keep a
straight face when hers turned sour. “And I don’t have time either, my Mother is
coming to pick me up shortly. I promised I would have lunch with her today
before I left”. Susanna didn’t like this, her expression turned even sourer.

“You should be spending today with me, since you will be away for
so long, not with your mother…”

“I’ll be spending the day with whoever I
want, now please let me finish packing!”

“But Terry, I am your fiancé,
won’t you miss me at all?” She sounded irritated, even though she was still
putting on the seductive façade.

Terry studied her face intensely for a
few moments; behind the irritation and the seductiveness she had put on, there
was no mistaking the adoring look in her eyes, full of expectations he knew he
would never be able to fulfill. Guilt overtook him momentarily for being unable
to return her affections, and once again he felt obliged to reach deep inside
him, to search even the most arcane depths of his soul, hoping to find
something, even a tiny speck of emotion that he could take and cultivate into a
feeling towards her…

Unsurprisingly, he found none… he had searched
before… there had never been any...

No… He was more than certain he
wouldn’t miss her.

“I think I will be kept so busy during filming, the
only thing I will miss will be some free time” he said flatly knowing very well
he would only have to work about four hours per day. “Now, if you’ll excuse me,
I really have to finish packing”. He finally managed to detach her from him but
he still had to support her as she brought her hands to his chest.

“Will
you at least bring me back something wonderfully exotic?” she pouted playing
with his tie.

Terry had a vision of a thick, angry snake mouth open and
fangs ready to strike, wrapped around her neck. “Sure” he said helping her to
remain standing while he reached for her crutches.

The doorbell rung at
that moment. “That must be Mother” Terry said “and I still haven’t finished
packing, she will have a fit!” He made sure Susanna had her crutches then
went to open the door.

“Good morning!” he told his mother, bending to
pick up the newly delivered pile of mail off the floor and trying to sound
cheerful.

“Will I have to come in and meet her?” she asked sharply.

“For five minutes only, I need to finish packing…” Terry said
apologetically and she sighed, rolling her eyes.

“It’s not such a good
morning then, is it…” she murmured grumpily entering the apartment and Terry
smiled behind her. Susanna had gone out of her ways during the past few months
to make herself liked by Eleanor Baker; so far however his mother had remained
resolutely unimpressed with her prospective daughter-in-law and she would do
whatever she could to avoid her. Terry found the whole affair amusing.

“Go to the bedroom, I’ll be there in a sec” he told his mother then
walked to the sitting room where Susanna had settled. Eleanor grunted a “hi” to
her from the door then rushed to the bedroom.

“Check to see if there are
any bills I need to take care off before I leave, will you?” he told Susanna
handing her the mail and she nodded sadly. “We’ll go finish packing”.

By
the time he got to the bedroom, his mother had already gone through the contents
of the suitcases, had decided that the only things missing were toiletries and
shoes and she had applied herself into collecting those and packing them neatly
in the suitcase.

“Don’t know what you’re doing, going on that trip right
now!” she muttered. “Not only that movie won’t pay even for your expenses but
you will end up being out of pocket to take part in it! It won’t give you any
significant experience either, and …”

“I’ve already told you Mother,
this isn’t about making the damn movie”.

She looked at him then and all
her acting talent weren’t able to hide her concern. “I understand very well what
this is about, which is what makes me even madder! You are making a bad job
choice just to get away from everything and in the meantime your name will be on
that junk’s credits and it will go into your CV, too!!! It won’t look very good
if your very first movie…”

“Teeeeerrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy…!!!!!!!”

Both of
them jumped, startled. The blood curling scream had come from the sitting
room.

“What the hell?” Terry said and looked at his mother who shrugged
indifferently.

“It’s drama time!” she said sarcastically.

They both hurried to the sitting room where Susanna sat looking at a
piece of paper she had just taken out of an envelope, shaking with
anger.

“What is this?” she shrieked, waving the paper in Terry’s
direction, beside herself with fury. “What is this?”

“Well, what
the hell is it?” Terry asked annoyed at her tone. He approached her and took the
document off her hands. He looked it and read it but… there was something wrong:
his brain wouldn’t register what he was seeing and reading. He frowned deeper,
read the front, turned it at the back… nothing: No matter how hard he tried to
figure it out, he couldn’t begin to fathom how such document could even exist.

Eleanor came and stood next to her son and looked at the document over
his shoulder. Terry turned and looked at her – she looked momentarily as
dumbfounded as he felt, then her expression changed into one of intense
astonishment. He looked at the certificate in his hands again trying to figure
out how in the hell he could be holding an official piece of paper from the
State of Illinois, authorizing everyone to celebrate the rites of matrimony
between Mr. Terrence Graham Grandchester and Miss Candice White Ardley...